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Dear Students and Families,
We hope that you all are doing well and staying healthy during these unprecedented times. The current situation presents challenges for all of us, but we know that it has been especially disorienting for students who had their life at Lafayette uprooted by the necessary shift to remote education at home. We regret how difficult this transition has been for members of the senior class in particular.
We appreciate your patience as our financial offices have worked over the last several weeks to develop a plan for appropriate reimbursement to families for room and board fees for the remainder of the spring term. Our goal was to design an approach that is simple, equitable, and supportive of the varied needs of our students.
We will be crediting or refunding 50 percent of the specific room and board charges due from each student who lived in college-owned housing and departed campus prior to April 4, 2020. (Proration of charges for students leaving campus housing later in the spring will not be available.)
We are pleased to note that we are honoring students’ full financial aid packages even as we reduce this semester’s charges for room and board. Furthermore, we have established a minimum credit of $1,000. This means that credit amounts will range from $1,000 for students whose financial aid packages covered their room and board costs to $5,000 for students who paid all room and board charges.
All eligible students, regardless of the amount paid for room and board, will receive the credit toward any unpaid account balance, or, if applicable, a refund check up to $1,000, with the remainder of any credit applied to a student’s account for next semester. Seniors will receive the entire refund this spring.
We hope that the $1,000 minimum will be useful to students who may confront unexpected expenses such as travel to or from campus, shipping of belongings, or loss of campus employment income due to this disruption. This credit for room and board is the only specific reimbursement the College is able to provide.
You will receive a communication from our Student Billing Office by April 10 notifying you of the specific refund amount you will receive. Questions about the refund policy or your student account should be sent to studentbilling@lafayette.edu.
Some families have generously indicated an interest in waiving this credit in order to support the College at this challenging time. We would be most grateful for such support. If you would like your credit to be donated to the Senior Class Gift, the Krivoski Student Emergency Assistance Fund, the College’s Annual Fund, or elsewhere, a link will be provided in the communication you will receive from Student Billing.
In the meantime, know that we miss you on campus, wish you well in the completion of your classes, and look forward to seeing you again in the fall ‒ or, if you are seniors, we hope to see you on the weekend of August 1!
Alison Byerly
President
Roger Demareski
VP for Finance & Administration